1 cup of soil may hold as many bacteria as there are people on earth, over 6 billion – NRCS –

Over 1000 species of invertebrates may be found in a single m2 of forest soil– Soil Food Web –

Natural processes can take more than 500 years to form 2 centimetres of topsoil. – European Soils Portal–

5 tonnes of animal life can live in one hectare of soil. – European Soils Portal–

Soil supports our planets biodiversity and they host a quarter of the total – FAO –

A typical, healthy soil might contain several species of vertebrate animals, several species of earthworms, 20-30 species of mites, 50-100 species of insects, tens of species of nematodes, hundreds of species of fungi and perhaps thousands of species of bacteria and actinomycetes. – FAO –

Soil contains the organism with the largest area. A single colony of the honey fungus, Armillaria ostoyae, covers about 9 km2. – FAO –

Mature trees can have as many as 5 million root tips – Soil Food Web –

“Farmers are less than 1% of the Australian population today.

In 1950, an Australian farmer fed 20 people

In1970, an Australian farmer fed 200 people

Today, an Australian farmer feeds 600 people”.

– Lynne Strong, Bega ABARES Regional Outlook Conference 30/08/12.–

“…the intensification of farming over the last century has increased the rate of soil erosion 60-fold” – George Monbitt –

Since 1945 » 11% of earth’s vegetated surface (» area of China + India) has been degraded so badly it will be very expensive or impossible to fix – Rattan Lal–

Globally salinisation removes about 3 hectares of land from production every minute. – Rattan Lal–

40% of Africa’s soils are currently degraded – FAO –

33% of global soil is moderately to highly degraded – FAO –

In next 30 years humans will need as much food and fibre as they used in last 10 000 yrs. – Rattan Lal–